Dad‑Bod Debugging: 5‑Day MA Fat‑Loss Plan in Obsidian

6 a.m. Scale Jitters vs. Toddler Breakfast Sprint 🥣

The kid is already sprint‑crawling for breakfast. I sneak onto the scale, watch the number flash, and decide—nope, not letting that one datapoint hijack my mood.

In Obsidian, a 5‑Day Moving Average (MA) updates itself and tells me, in plain English: “still on course—keep breakfast the same.” That little graph is my invisible coach: zero drama, zero guesswork, zero sacrifice in the gym.

Why You Should Trust a Moving‑Average, Not Your Scale

Water & glycogen whiplash: Long lower‑body session? Salty ramen? Either can swing the scale by a pound overnight.
Five‑day ≈ Goldilocks window: Three felt twitchy; seven lagged. Five keeps you honest within a work‑week.
It’s your trading stop‑loss: When the MA drifts outside target, you adjust once—no over‑corrections.

Zero‑Code Setup (Copy‑Paste Friendly)

Any bodyweight scale → Nothing fancy needed.
Obsidian daily note → Manually jot a weight: field in your Daily note.
This DataviewJS snippet calculates the MA.

Copy-paste this into a new note (I call mine Weight Tracker.md).

// truncated for blog readability; full gist linked below
const days = dv
  .pages('"Daily"')
  .where(p => typeof p.weight === 'number')
  .sort(p => p.file.name, 'desc');
/* ...compute 5‑day MA, delta, table render... */

Full code? Grab the gist

The Decision Engine — One‑Look Fat‑Loss Dials

Status	Δ (today MA – yesterday MA)	What I Change
Slow	0.00 → –0.09 lb	+500 steps (cap 12 k, then add cardio)
On‑Plan	–0.10 → –0.20 lb	Hold steady
Fast	< –0.21 lb	–500 steps (or –5 min cardio)

No mental math. The MA tells me to walk a bit more, walk a bit less, or leave it.

+ 500 Steps	+ 5 min Cardio
Stroller detour: park at the far end & loop the block once.	Incline treadmill: 12 % @ 3 mph.
Walking Pomodoro: 2‑min lap every 25‑min work block.	Stationary bike: Zone 2, Netflix on.
Grocery‑lot gambit: return the cart to the far corral—twice.	Elliptical glide: conversational pace.

All picks are toddler‑friendly, joint‑kind, and easy to dial down when the MA says “chill.”

Muscle‑Retention Guardrails

Protein ≥ 1 g/lb lean body mass—high‑protein diets spare muscle in a deficit ^{(Phillips & Van Loon 2011)}
Compound lifts stay heavy: keep machine or free‑weight compounds at ≈ 80 % of your normal load twice a week—heavy loads best protect strength ^{(Schoenfeld et al. 2021)}
Sleep triage: blackout curtains + a 20‑min power‑nap when toddler takeover wrecks the night.
Deload, don’t delete: drop one set—not the weight—if recovery tanks.

These rules let body‑fat trend south while weight‑stack numbers crawl north.

Why Obsidian Over a Fancy App?

Local & portable: markdown files live forever.
Back‑links: click weight trend → last leg‑day notes → see what changed.
Automation: DataviewJS means no subscription, no API limits.

Disclaimer: I’m a data‑driven dad, not your doctor. Talk to a pro before making big nutrition or training changes.

Next Reads

I’ll share the first DEXA + MA chart combo in June 2025. You might enjoy these other posts in the meantime.

Upper‑Lower Split: 45‑Minute Strength for Busy Parents — the program behind these guardrails.
From Interest to Identity: When Repetition Becomes “Who I Am” — how tiny data points hard‑wire habits.
Writing Workflow with Obsidian + GitHub Pages — the pipeline that makes this post auto‑update itself.

6 a.m. Scale Jitters vs. Toddler Breakfast Sprint 🥣